girl worried

 

Within the next day or two, you will become worried about something going on in your life.

As a matter of fact, the majority of us have a worried mind constantly running in the background throughout each day. While we are trying to accomplish an important work project or helping our kids with a life lesson, our minds are constantly interrupting us to say, “Hey!! Don’t forget about all these negative things that are going to happen to you!”

It’s like our subconscious minds are focused on avoiding failures instead of reaching success in life.

 

Why Do I Have Such a Worried Mind?

It is inevitable that we will worry about certain things that could potentially hurt us. Some of us will worry about specific struggles in our personal life while others are wired to be anxious about almost everything.

Here are a few reasons that cause us to worry throughout the day:

  • Money
  • Career
  • Relationships
  • Health

no money

For me, I never had a worried mind until I started supporting my family financially. I think saying I have a worried mind is somewhat of an overstatement, but if I am ever worried, it is most likely going to be due to financial reasons.

The weird thing is I have money to support my family. I’m not a Jeff Bezos by any means, but if an emergency happened tomorrow, I’m confident I could take care of my wife and kids. With this being said, why do I have a worried mind if I am confident to overcome financial challenges thrown my way?

If you look at recent studies, about 85% of the time, the problems people worry about don’t come to fruition at all. This means 85% of the time we are interrupting our important activities to dwell on negative scenarios that won’t affect our daily lives.

We should all keep this in mind next time we start to worry so we can logically tell ourselves that worrying about this new problem is a complete waste of time. Even if this negative outcome did happen, it isn’t worth worrying about it twice.

 

The 1 Trick To Calm Your Worried Mind

When you notice your mind drifting off into negative land, try this simple trick:

Instead of letting your worried mind think about these unnecessary what-ifs, immediately stop that thought from festering in your mind. Literally, think to yourself and say “Nope. I’m not going to waste time on this negative thought.” Instead, rebuttal this thought by answering the question at hand.

For example, “If ___________ happens to me, I will do ___________ to solve the problem.”

It sounds too simple, but this actually can (and will) help calm your worried mind.

Yesterday, my wife told me that we were going to have a new/unexpected expense in the coming months that would cost us around $5000. Immediately, I felt my stomach tighten and I thought about how detrimental this financial burden would be on our family.

After a moment, I asked myself, “If I had to pay the $5000 tomorrow, how would I do this?”

Once I asked myself this question, I began to think about the worst-case scenario and what I would do to solve for this. I thought, “Technically, I could use savings, go into debt, find another income stream, etc.”

Oddly enough, the sick feeling went away completely and I was worry-free.

let go and free

This helped me face the issue head-on and diverted the focus from negative worrying to positive planning. When this feeling comes back next week, I will get back into planning mode and squash the worried thought once again.

 

What Are You Worried About?

What is that one thing going on in your life that keeps you up at night or constantly distracts you during the day?

Give this exercise a shot and fill in the blanks below:

If ___________ happens to me…
I will do ___________ to solve the problem.
I will do ___________ to solve the problem.
I will do ___________ to solve the problem.

Did this help calm your worried mind a little bit?

 

I hope this is helpful and will give you back some time and stress next time you catch yourself worrying about things that don’t need your attention. The Calm app is another tool that people have found to be helpful for meditating and tools to help you sleep better at night.

If you know someone that could benefit from this article, please share these tips with them. Also, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Read Also: 25 Ways to Say ‘No’ and Why You Should Master This Skill